To mark the seventieth anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, a unique commemorative concert will be held on Friday, 23 October, at 6:30 p.m. in the United Nations General Assembly Hall.

Realizing the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the assurance of global security required the sharing of outer space technologies and the adoption of an international code of conduct for their application, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) heard today, as it concluded its general debate on international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space.

While speakers agreed on the need to end impunity for the gravest international crimes, views diverged on how broad the application of universal jurisdiction should be towards that end and whether or not to specify crimes for inclusion, as the Sixth Committee (Legal) considered the matter today.

Terrorism and climate change go hand in hand in delaying, and in some cases destroying, development gains, the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) heard today as it concluded its discussion on sustainable development.

States had the obligation to respect and ensure the right of all persons to be free from torture and ill treatment, and mechanisms to detect and prevent those scourges must have readily available funding to ensure the fulfilment of their mandates, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) heard today as it began discussions on human rights with a series of interactive dialogues with special rapporteurs and other top officials.

In an effort to defuse current tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, the Secretary-General began a visit to the region today, where he is scheduled to meet with senior officials.  He said the visit is intended to encourage all efforts to lower tensions and prevent the situation from spinning out of control.

On 20 October 2015, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 2127 (2013) concerning the Central African Republic enacted the amendments specified with strikethrough and underline in the entry below on its Sanctions List of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze and travel ban set out in paragraphs 4 and 7 of Security Council resolution 2196 (2015) adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations:

NEW YORK, 20 October (United Nations Statistics Division) — Today, statistical offices, universities, international organizations, the private sector and statisticians worldwide join the Statistics Division in celebrating the second Word Statistics Day, promoting the invaluable importance of data in the uplifting of lives:  “Better data. Better lives.”

Delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) once again threw their support behind an independent panel now examining the internal justice system set up in 2009 to resolve disputes for tens of thousands of United Nations employees around the world.

The Security Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999) and 1989 (2011) has agreed to convey to Member States the current trends in financing of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Al-Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant (ANF) (QDe.137) and any others designated as associated with Al-Qaida.  They are drawn from the assessment by the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team of the impact of the measures imposed in Security Council resolution 2199 (2015), pursuant to paragraph 30 of the resolution, and the Chair’s summary of this document (S/2015/739).  The Committee also wishes to provide suggestions to Member States to assist with their implementation of resolution 2199 (2015).